The ELCA magazine The Lutheran recently reported on the happenings at this spring's ELCA Synod assemblies. It is no surprise that the synods of Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, who continue to become more liberal and less Biblical, are fixated on promoting homosexuality and denigrating Israel. The Lutheran reported on the 26 synod assemblies that took place in May 2013, highlighting some resolutions brought before those assemblies; it was not a comprehensive list. Of the resolutions highlighted, 22 were focused on and supportive of homosexuality and related issues and 11 dealt with Israel, promoting positions held by anti-Israel supporters. (see here) Here are some of the anti-Israel resolutions mentioned in The Lutheran:

“Affirmed support for members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land; asked its congregations to study the issues, work for justice, and call on their elected leaders to hold hearings on whether Israel's use of U.S. financial aid violates the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act and Arms Export Control Act.”

“Affirmed the Peace Not Walls campaign; memorialized the Churchwide Assembly to commit to socially responsible economic practices by encouraging members to invest in Palestinian economic endeavors and avoid products and services from companies that benefit from or support Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory.”

“Sought accompaniment, awareness-raising and advocacy for people of the Holy Land, and socially responsible economic practices that pertain to the Israeli-Palestine conflict.”

“Recommended study of the Kairos Palestine document and advocacy for a just and peaceful solution in the Holy Land.”

Here are some of the pro-homosexuality resolutions:

“Asked the Churchwide Assembly to call for legislation prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity."

"Invited conversations regarding ways the church can advocate for equal protections for same-gender couples and their families."

"Backed the Uniting American Families Act, which would give binational same-sex couples the same immigration rights afforded to heterosexual couples."

"Asked the Churchwide Assembly to urge all branches of government to recognize the freedom to marry for all people; sought further conversations on this topic.”

“Commended the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America for changing policy that excluded gay youth from participation; encouraged it to re-examine policy banning homosexual people in leadership roles.”

Also, in a recent news release by the ELCA addressing the upcoming 2013 ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Pittsburgh, PA, they summarized the actions that the voting members at the assembly will consider this year saying, “Proposals (known as memorials) from the ELCA’s 65 synods include topics such as gender identity discrimination, the Uniting American Families Act, community violence, ministering to same-gender couples and their families, immigration reform, hydraulic fracturing, and the Middle East.” (read here)

After reading the race and ethnicity etc. section, all I can say is that white guilt can distort and undermine even the best of intentions. According to the ELCA it is basically white people who are first and foremost racist and this is correlated to our place of priviledge. The sheer fact that they isolate white people the way they do in one section in particular is racist in and of itself. The sheer fact that they are approaching it from a blatantly political standpoint (with arbitrary biblical quotations to try a bolster their stance) delegitimizes whatever honorable intentions they may have. As far as the issue of homosexuality is concerned, they may be onto something if they just talked about a Christian's need to not commit unjust violence against homosexuals, and illegal discrimation against gays when it comes to employment; but their insistence on gay marriage, which is not backed up too well by Scripture, and their view that there is not a sacramental reality in marriage takes it way to far and is almost intolerable.

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Didaskalos

7/28/2013 08:08:54 am

A report we're waiting with bated breath to hear at the 2013 ELCA convention: "A report on the implementation of the ELCA social statement “Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust” adopted by the 2009 Churchwide Assembly."

Will that report list the hundreds of thousands of emigres who have fled the ELCA since the Big Bible Backpedal of '09?

More things we're waiting to hear at the convention: "Budget proposals for 2014 to 2016"

Let's see. According to the June 2013 ELCA Treasurer's Report, "Mission Support" to the ELCA in 2008 was $65 million. (It was also $65 million back in 1989.) In 2012, Mission Support had fallen to $50 million. Maybe the ELCA will propose a merger with the Episcopalians to consolidate these two foundering, feckless social clubs.

Will there be even one convention resolution countering the proliferation of debauched libertinism and Israel hatred in today's ELCA? Or has everyone whose conscience is bound to the Bible already fled Babylon on Higgins Road?

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Janet Muldoon

7/29/2013 01:40:09 am

On the subject of homosexuality; Christians should be humble enough not to judge those who claim to be homosexual simply because their cause is not understood. We as Christians must be humble enough to stand by the truth of God's Word in humility. No one is above God's Word, but rather proclaim God's Word in love and pray. Gods Word was written for the purpose to save souls for Jesus.

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Dave from Minnesota

7/30/2013 05:17:54 pm

What are two things allowed in the Jewish State (Israel)?
A) Lutherans
B) Gays

What are two things not allowed in "Palestine"?
A) Lutherans (see religous cleansing going on in mid-east Arab world)
B) Gays

So why does the ELCA hate Israel? I say the church is anti-Semitic. They would sacriface Christians in the mid-east in their efforts to destroy the Jewish state.

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Dave from Minnesota

7/30/2013 05:23:25 pm

A bigger picture is that this is the result of an effort that started in the late 1960's/early 70s., The left saw that they couldn't take over the country by force, nor at the time by ballot (see Nixon in 1972).
So they started the "long march through the institutions".

How many Biblical Christians attended these synod assemblies? Probably virtually none. They are busy running their farms, businesses and taking care of families. Or volunteering.

The thought of using their church to promote their secular political causes is a concept exclusive to the hard left.

18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.[a] 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

24 As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us—eternal life.

26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

1 John 2:18-27

16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

1 John 4:16

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Ben Monroe

8/2/2013 06:23:29 am

Much of the ELCA's political agenda is so harebrained that church leaders can only sell it by falsely claiming they have been guided by the Holy Spirit. For more about such false prophets, read the 23rd chapter of Jeremiah.

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Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. ​1 Thessalonians 5:21

Dan Skogen

Former ELCA seminary student and former ELCA member who is fed up with the ELCA's consistent mockery of God's Word.

If you have been helped and blessed by Exposing the ELCA's ministry, please help us continue to proclaim the truth of God's Word to ELCA members who need to hear it.